


Five Times Kaiba Watched Otogi

by misura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: 5 Things, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-06
Updated: 2007-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-07 22:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"You were looking at me," Otogi says, sounding pleased and more than a little smug.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Kaiba Watched Otogi

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _5 Reasons That Seto Can't Stop Watching Ryuuji._ (fickle_goddess)

[1]

"You were looking at me," Otogi says, sounding pleased and more than a little smug.

"Actually, I was just keeping an eye on you," Kaiba says, cool and controlled, as he always is, unless he's trading insults with Jounouchi, in which event he loses his cool a little, on occasion. "I've heard about that little joke you played on Jounouchi."

Otogi smirks. "Oh? And what is Jounouchi to you? Is there something I should know about between you and him? I'm new around here, after all. I don't want to accidentally offend you."

Kaiba doesn't doubt that for a moment. Otogi will only offend him purposefully, and completely aware of what he's doing. He's the kind of opponent Kaiba likes, more than Yugi, with his babbling about the two of them becoming friends one day. Otogi knows how things work in this world.

"Jounouchi is nothing to me," he informs Otogi. "A useless mutt."

Otogi catches the compliment and smiles. Kaiba waits to see if Otogi will try to bait him into making the compliment more explicit, making some comment about how great minds think alike. He hopes not; that would be a bit of a disappointment, after the first impression he got from Otogi.

"And what am _I_ to you, Kaiba?" Otogi asks, smile widening. "You _were_ looking at me, after all."

"Keeping an eye on you," Kaiba corrects him. "I always keep an eye on the competition. Don't think you'll ever be able to take me by surprise, the way you did Jounouchi."

"Take you by surprise? I wouldn't dream of it." Otogi chuckles, like Kaiba has made some sort of joke.

 

[2]

"You were looking at me," Otogi says, and Kaiba doesn't think it sounds like an accusation or a complaint, which is a bit unexpected. If Kaiba'd been someone who accuses and complains, instead of someone who simply gets even, he'd have sounded a lot different from the way Otogi sounds.

"So were you." The words slip out before he realizes how ridiculous they make him sound. "I meant to say that you were looking at me. Before I started looking at you. I simply returned the favor." Kaiba frowns. If Otogi were more like Jounouchi, he'd be cutting Kaiba to pieces by now, after being given that much ammunition. Otogi is smiling, true, but not like he's about to make a kill.

"Ah, I see. You were just ... returning the favor? Striking back?" Otogi cocks his head. "Did you like what you saw?"

Kaiba considers what he's seen: a very cocky young man who surrounds himself with immature girls that all think he's the center of their universe. And, on the other side, a successful CEO of a fledgling corporation, trying to survive in the dangerous jungle of business. He's not sure what answer to give Otogi, so he simply shakes his head, pretends the question is irrelevant.

"I know I liked what _I_ saw," Otogi says.

 

[3]

"You were looking at me," Otogi says, and if he's beginning to feel like a broken record, he hides it well. Kaiba feels he should be getting tired of having this conversation.

"You're seated in front of me," Kaiba points out, like that's really a reason to watch the way Otogi sharpens his pencil, or bends down to pick up the eraser he dropped.

"Next to Jounouchi," Otogi confirms and yes, it used to be that there was an empty seat in front of Kaiba, with Jounouchi in front of him, emphatically not looking back. It occurs to Kaiba to wonder if Otogi's picked his seat because it was next to Jounouchi, or because it was in front of Kaiba. The first seems unlikely, the second improbable. 

"I have to look _somewhere_ ," Kaiba says, continuing on his way to prove that this is all nothing more than a coincidence, that there's a perfectly logical explanation for his interest in Otogi.

"And I'm better to look at than Jounouchi?" Otogi asks. "That's not much of a compliment, you know. Although, coming from you, it might be. You don't flatter people lightly, Kaiba. It's one of the many things we don't have in common."

"I prefer to only praise someone when they deserve it," Kaiba replies stiffly.

"You're gorgeous, highly intelligent and almost as sexy as I am," Otogi says. "You're also stuck-up and colder than a blizzard in December. I suppose that all adds to the attraction though. There, how did that make you feel? Good, bad, or something in between?"

 

[4]

The day after the conversation that Kaiba has come to think of as his biggest mistake since he accepted that invitation of Yugi's to come to his birthday-party, Kaiba finds himself watching Otogi once again, not sure why he bothers, or why Otogi isn't looking back this time.

Perhaps, Kaiba allows himself to hope (he tells himself he's hoping it, anyway) Otogi has simply lost interest, now that Kaiba's made it clear he's not going to let Otogi do whatever it was Otogi thought he was doing by making eyes at Kaiba and talking about the lovely shade of the blue that Kaiba's eyes are.

Nothing that Kaiba has seen implies that Otogi uses flattery and charm to get his corporation ahead, but everything that Kaiba has seen implies that Otogi uses flattery and charm to get ahead as a person. Why would he not? Kaiba uses his intelligence, and Otogi uses his looks. There's little difference between their methods, really - Kaiba simply has the advantage that in the business-world, there are more people who distrust charm and flattery, and fewer who dislike superior intelligence.

As a team, a small voice in the back of Kaiba's mind comments, he and Otogi would be stunning.

Kaiba replies that, as a partner, instead of someone to watch during maths and history, Otogi would be utterly insufferable and impossible to live with. Kaiba's the smart one, after all.

He'll look, and not care one bit if Otogi doesn't look back, but he's not going to touch and get burnt.

 

[5]

"You are looking at me," Otogi says, not turning around. Summer has come and gone, and somehow, somewhen, Otogi has become a resident of the Kaiba Mansion, although sometimes, he and Kaiba will spend the night in the apartment over Otogi's gamestore.

Kaiba thinks he's bothered less by the realization that he's lost control of the situation than by the realization that he doesn't actually care. Otogi hogs the covers and monopolizes the bathroom for absurd stretches of time in the mornings, but he also gets along with Mokuba and is able to cook.

"Because I like what I'm seeing," Kaiba admits, as much to himself as to Otogi.

It's as good a reason as there can be though, he supposes.


End file.
